A regular rummy glossary is filled with terms. This is because there are different rummy games available and each one has some specific terms that are used. This is why a lot of people can become really confused. Let us solve this problem by looking at those terms that are really important in a rummy glossary. By understanding them we can easily get a much clearer view of what is happening at a rummy table.
• Advertising (also known as Baiting, Fishing or Chumming) – you are advertising when you are discarding cards in order to make someone discard cards in the exact same suit or rank with it.
• Blocking – you are blocking when you are not discarding cards that are extending melds for opponents.
• Combination – 2 cards that can become a set in the event that you add the proper third card.
• Dead Cards – dead cards are cards that are not available anymore because they have been either melded or discarded.
• Deadwood – cards that are not matched in a player’s hand.
• Discarding – the process of putting one card from your hand on the top of a discard pile. This process will mark the end of a player’s turn.
• Knock (or Go Down) – when a play is ended by the placement of all the rest of the cards of one player on the table.
• Meld – To place a set or run on a table.
• Natural Card – Any card that is not a joker (jokers are also known as wild cards).
• Plucking – taking the top card from the deck.
• Rope – synonym with sequence.
• Safe Discard – one discard that will probably not be taken up by the next player.
• Wild Discard – a discard that a player knows it has big chances of being picked up, thus making the discard unsafe.
Other rummy glossary terms exist and there are many. If you want to be truly successful in any rummy variation there is a need for you to learn them all. We are mainly referring to the terms that are linked to the rummy game that you are playing and not those that are usually used in other rummy games. For instance, there is no sense in knowing all the specific Gin Rummy terms if you are playing Canasta. Read about rummy history: it is really interesting to discover this amazing game’s origin.